A Champion Rises
by Nate310593
Summary: Airen, Percy and Lydia, three people chosen as Oak's newest trio. Follow their journey around Kanto as they battle for badges, for pokemon and for friendship.
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

The sunlight crept in between the dusty curtains of the library, it wouldn't be light for long, the sun was slowly setting in the west, a gentle breeze rolled through the window. It was a beautiful scene as always, just off to the north west you could see the majesty of Mt. Silver, the mountain that separated the Kanto and Johto regions, and to the south west the endless ocean, holding countless islands and countless Pokémon. An old man sat at his desk in the library, procrastinating while he watched the sunset, he preferred Mt. Silver to the mountains of paperwork on his desk right now, sorting through applications for starter level Pokémon. He picked up another application, skimming through it, it was the third application from Vermillion City he had read so far but he had to read every single one. The sun finally set and the wind picked up, a breeze sped through the window and toppled the paperwork across the room, even the application he had was torn out of his hand and sent out the door.  
"Oh, in the name of Mew" he cursed, getting out of his seat and onto his hands and knees, his lab coat fluttered in the breeze, the combination of a purple polo shirt, tucked into his brown slacks with his dress shoes, he wore professional attire, as always. He scattered around the room collecting the pages of applications, when a young teenager appeared at the door, clutching yet another application,  
"this yours pops?" he looked around at the mess, "woah, what happened here"  
"A breeze, that's what happened!" he exclaimed, clearly frustrated, "yes, that is mine, thank you" he took the page back, knocked them against the floor to try and neaten them, which didn't work all that well and returned to his desk.  
"How is it all going? Have you decided everyone?" The teen inquired,  
"No, not just yet, I've decided the first two, but I am going through the applications for Squirtle now"  
"Did you get my application pops?" his face grew a grin as he seemed fairly amused with that remark like he had just played some sort of prank,  
"yes I did, you didn't have a reference letter from a qualified source, only the application"  
"well you're my qualified source!"  
"Blue, you are too young, you are only fifteen, soon, I promise that, but not yet" he saw the disappointment turn to jealousy in Blue's face,  
"is Red getting a Pokémon now!"  
"no, no he isn't, I've told you before, you will go together" Blue's face shifted back to disappointment, "look, you are sixteen in a few months, next intake, I will accept your application." Blue's face beamed with excitement,  
"Really?! Can I go to tell Red?" He had a full teeth grin on his face, and the old man couldn't help but let him go tell his friend,  
"Yes, go on, go tell Red." He didn't even finish his sentence before Blue left in a hurry, however just as quickly, he re-appeared.  
"I think you missed one pops" he gleefully handed it over to the old man and then sprinted out the door again.  
_'now, back to work' _he thought, looking at the application his grandson handed him, _'Mr. Airen Redwood, Cinnabar Island.'_


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

The sun shone brightly that day, as it climbed over Cinnabar's Islands' volcano and lit the treetops as they rebelliously grew near the volcano. The town of Cinnabar sits below this island volcano, inactive for years but the towns superstition is that it once shaped the island, and from destruction breeds creation. Not a large town but large enough to find some time to yourself, a small Pokémon Centre and Pokémart lay side by side and my house not too far away. My neighbours, family and friends are all into the fire type Pokémon, being near a volcano, and the host of the fire Gym in the Kanto league. When a trainer believes they are ready to compete for the Kanto League, they write a letter to Professor Oak, an application for a starter Pokémon which must included a reference from a qualified source, in my town, that's Blaine, the Gym leader. If your towns' qualified source believes you are ready and Professor Oak is impressed with your application, he sends you back a summoning, to meet him at his lab and receive your starter level Pokémon, last week, I got my letter, and today I am leaving.

I had read about how to catch Pokémon and what a Pokédex was and how to use one well before I was meant to. Unknown to many of the people on the island is a building buried near the Gym, a giant, beautiful mansion that once stood, now burnt down, abandoned and underground. I spent a lot of free time there, as a child, this mansion that housed many Pokémon, and every now and then thieves, remained my quiet and peaceful place. It was here I met my childhood friend, a Growlithe, exploring around the buildings library, looking at books, instruction manuals and research notes, one such crook approached me. Growlithe sprung to my rescue, burning the foe and sending him out the door without taking a thing. Ever since my Growlithe, that I've since named Archie has been by my side.

My next-door neighbour was a fierce girl with a fuse close to two centimetres long, her name was Elysia, with short boyish light brown hair and blue eyes to match. She had been my boyhood crush for as long as I could remember, and trying to keep it secret but knowing she figured it out long ago. She never even thought of me that way however, my time alone in the mansion was usually spent thinking of her, the other times were Pokémon. Elysia had a desire to travel and return a brilliant fire Pokémon master and become the Gym leader here after Blaine, she had always been in awe of his skill and passion, knowing she had heaps to learn she could not wait until the day she would be summoned to Pallet Town to pick up her starter, she was ready for it now, but her summoning letter never came. I just wanted to learn as much as I could about Pokémon, but not just that, about the history of each and every town, the legends and superstitions that stuck with the residents, written in folklore. Many times I would make my way to the Mansions' library, looking up stories and legends, about Pokémon who could time travel, who apparently created land, water and air, Pokémon who ruled time and space and even distorted worlds in universes beyond this one. Of course these were all just local stories, collected and added to an anthology of Pokémon history. This is what really interested me. The myths and legends, which is what I want to learn about and possibly, uncover new discoveries.

My name is Airen, and today is the day I leave this town and venture to Kanto, in order to follow my dream, learning as much as I possibly can. I was staring out the window, knowing this is possibly the last time, at least for a while, that I'd see this volcano. You never realise its beauty until you are about to lose it.  
"Don't worry." came a voice behind me, "It's not gonna go anywhere while you are gone."  
It was my mum, a small woman, for our family at least, standing a little below five and a half feet while the rest of us were six feet tall and above.  
"I don't know, I swear it just moved." I replied with a smile on my face.  
She managed a smile in order to hold back the tears, I was glad for that, she had been crying all week since she agreed to let me leave, dad was more than happy but I knew he cared. Rolling myself out of bed, I went to the bathroom to shower and clean up before I head off, looking in the mirror and wondering what actually happens to my hair at night, my dark brown hair never looked right straight out of bed, but after a shower it went from messy to straight down and flat, getting into my usual jeans with a V-neck shirt and button up over shirt combo. As I walked out to the kitchen, I grabbed my breakfast and got the last of my things, that morning was strangely quiet, mum and dad sat silently, gently looking at me but swiftly staring away when I tried to match their gaze, almost as if they would never see me again, like it was the last. I finished my meal in the dead silence, grabbed my pack and my belongings and even let Archie out to walk beside me for company. I said my goodbyes, dad offering a stern but caring handshake and my mum took about two minutes to stop hugging me. I walked out the door and it took less than five steps before I heard her voice.  
"Airen! You gonna leave without saying goodbye?!"  
Hearing her call my name always made my heart skip a beat, I turned to answer but she had already reached me and threw her arms around me.  
"You know I will return right?" I asked.  
"Yep, and you'll have six badges when you do." she managed with a smile.  
"You gonna miss me while I'm gone?"  
She sent her hand flying into my arm "DUH!" she exclaimed, "Yes of course, you are my best friend."  
A bittersweet response. I turned, still rubbing my arm, knowing she would escort me to the helicopter that would take me across the sea, but I was stopped by Blaine, the Gym leader here.  
"So, here's the master in the making." with a loud, booming voice.  
Blaine stood just short of me and wore smart pants, shirt and tie, matched with a white lab coat, his white moustache measuring much taller than his hair and was the only hair on his head, apart from his eyebrows. I smiled back to him, knowing a Pokémon master wasn't my dream at all, rather just to learn, though everyone on this island shared his belief.  
"Hey Blaine." I managed, "I'll see you in six Gym battles time."  
"Can't wait." he chuckled.  
"H...i... Bla..ine, sir." Elysia muttered as she blushed redder than Archie's fur.  
"Hey Elysia, how are ya?!" his gaze turned to me as he spoke, "Isn't she a keeper?" he winked and now it was my turn to blush,  
"Yea, a great friend." I reassured, expertly covering my ass before that conversation continued.  
"I'll see ya later Blaine, take care of Elysia for me would ya?"  
I continued my walk to the helipad. The helicopter was mainly used for delivering and receiving Pokémon medicine for the mart and centre but this time it was headed to Viridian, and they offered me a ride to Pallet Town, which I gratefully accepted. As I motioned toward the helicopter I received another embrace from Elysia, and then turned to see Elysia's family, my family and Blaine seeing me off, even this towns' Nurse Joy had come out to see me off. I waved goodbye one last time and jumped on the helicopter, when it took off even I couldn't stop a tear rolling down my cheek as my beautiful town at the foot of a majestic volcano disappeared from sight.


	3. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

The helicopter didn't have enough room to land in Pallet Town, climbing down a rope ladder on the outskirts of town was not how I thought I was gonna start my journey, A few people, not much younger than me ran over to see the excitement, a new person arriving in town, by helicopter of all things, I felt like a movie star. I was greeted almost immediately by a kid, no more than thirteen years of age,  
"Welcome to Pallet Town, I'm the grandchild of Professor Oak, Blue" he said with a loud voice making sure the other kid heard him. The other kid was quiet and shy and mainly looked at his feet.  
"Hello, I'm Airen." I said, holding out my hand toward him, he looked at me in the eye, and looked back at his feet and slowly walked away.  
"That's Red, he's a bit shy." Blue cut in. I looked at Blue again.  
"Can you show me the way to the lab?"  
"Sure can."  
He grabbed my arm and started marching away. I wiggled out of his grip but had to pick up some pace to keep up with such an energetic kid. Before too long we were at Oaks' Lab. He ran quickly inside and the door slammed shut. I had my summoning letter with me, allowing me to get my Kanto starter, despite already having my Archie. I entered with confidence, but that was short lived after seeing the size of the lab. A large hallway lead to Pokémon storage rooms and a healing centre on the left and a study and massive library of the right, at the end was a staircase where it seemed Oak would live, bathe and eat. I immediately found the library and started perusing the books that lined the walls top to bottom, corner to corner. I found many on the different types of Pokémon, different cities, past civil wars in other regions, and some on Pokémon deities. I picked up a book and traced the spine.  
_'The Burnt Tower' _I thought to myself  
I opened the book and managed to read half a sentence before Oak found me.  
"You must be Mr Redwood." Startled, I dropped the book.  
"S..S..Sorry." I eventually muttered "Uhh... Airen, please."  
Bending over to pick up the book and replace it on the shelf.  
"I see you found your way here alright, apparently it was an exciting entrance, according to Blue."  
"Blue?" I looked puzzled, then remembered, "Oh right, your grandson."  
"You are here to pick up your Pokémon, follow me." I nodded  
following him out of the library into the Pokémon storage room where two Pokéballs laid on a table in the middle of the room,  
"These are Kanto's starting Pokémon, Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur. As you can see, one has already been collected, but I trust you know which one is for you?"  
I nodded again and moved to the ball behind a label that read 'Squirtle', I reached out to grab it, I studied the ball in my hand, knowing that I made a great choice. Another voice appeared out of nowhere, but this was one I knew.  
"Good choice Airen, it's the best one." he smiled back and walked out of the room  
"He means well, and one day he will be a great trainer, Pallet Town has two potential trainers, both will be great, one day."  
I nodded "Yeah, I am sure they will be, thank you for Squirtle, Professor Oak, I will look after it."  
"Before you go Airen, take these Pokéballs and this Pokédex, I trust you know what to do?"  
"Yes I do." I smiled, oddly proud of that last remark, "Thank you professor."  
I left the room and eventually the lab, as soon as I walked outside I got bumped into so hard I landed flat on my ass, when I looked up, she was as well, I quickly jumped up, dusted myself off and offered her a hand, I helped her up and she was still rubbing her head, her light brown hair sat in a ponytail and her blue eyes met mine as she muttered  
"Sorry, excuse me." and walked into the lab. I shook it off and walked back to the area where I was dropped off and continued on my way, Blue and Red were nowhere to be seen but I am sure I'd hear from them again. I found the sign that read 'Route One, This way to Viridian City.' Knowing I was on the right track, I continued north.

Route one seemed to snake back and forth and running into Pokémon wasn't a problem until health started getting dangerously low, with two Pokémon I knew I had some back up, using Archie as my main and Squirtle for battles. Getting close to the end and fairly low on health I knew I needed more Pokémon to help and build my team.  
"Alright Archie, let's go catch a Pokémon.", Archie let out a loud and energetic bark. At that moment a Pidgey swooped down to attack, narrowly missing Archie's head and landing roughly ten metres ahead of us,  
"Okay, this our chance Archie! Start off with an Ember!" Spits of fire came firing out of Archie's mouth and made a direct hit at Pidgey's chest, Pidgey immediately flies upward and accelerates into a tackle straight at Archie.  
"Archie! Jump!" Archie soars well over the low flying Pidgey, lands and returns straight into an Ember again,  
"Archie, that's enough.", I grab a Pokéball out of my pack and threw it at the tired and sore Pidgey, hoping to catch it to add to my party, the ball captures Pidgey and starts to shake and beep, watching eagerly, both Archie and myself stand still not moving a muscle, you could hear a pin drop apart from the shaking of the ball in the grass, finally a loud beep and the shaking stops, I look at Archie and he barks back in excitement, knowing we just added another member to our party, he leaps into my arms and I give him a pat before I retrieve my ball and add to my belt. Feeling a great sense of accomplishment I continue on, but not for much longer, Viridian City is in my sights. I grab my stuff and call Archie to my side, filled with motivation and energy to reach the next city heal my Pokémon and start to train them. I walk no more than a few feet before something hit my shoulder again and knocked my bag out of my hand,  
"Sorry!" I heard a female voice, I looked up to see who it was, but she had already passed and run off "Is that?... Was that?..." it was hard to see her while she was running away but I'm sure she was the girl from Oaks lab and before I knew it, she was gone. I picked up my pack and continued toward Viridian City, it was still a fair walk away, amazingly the girl from the lab was long gone, she had disappeared from sight, though seeing her made me think she was the third trainer selected. As there are three starters, three trainers were selected each time, Charmander was already selected and taken when I came along, and I took the Squirtle, she must have Bulbasaur. _'I wonder who the first trainer is.'_ I thought to myself as I walked along, so entranced in idea I walked into the Viridian City Pokémon Centre and handed over my Pokémon to Nurse Joy before I even realized what was going on. I had made it to Viridian City rather quickly I thought, in fact it was only just hitting sunset, I needed to find somewhere to sleep. I must've said that aloud because my thought process was interrupted by Nurse Joy  
"You can stay here tonight if you need." with a smile,  
"Thank you." I replied in kind. I left my Pokémon in the care of Nurse Joy overnight while she showed me to my room to sleep and rest. The bed was comfy enough, but I couldn't sleep while so deep in thought. Now thinking about home, my family, Elysia, how they were going without me. Finally I rolled over, closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.


	4. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

As I got up the next morning, my first sleep away from Cinnabar Island was restless. I stumbled across the room to my pack and grabbed a fresh shirt then left to find the kitchen to buy some breakfast, after all I was so lost in thought last night I forgot to eat. As I sat down Nurse Joy brought me breakfast, I seemed to be the only one in the centre. Nurse Joy also turned on the television hanging up in the corner, switching on the local news. I went back to my breakfast before a news headline struck my interest.  
"Professor Oak's new trio has been selected, with the three trainers picking up their starting Pokémon yesterday." The newscaster read further as pictures of the three trainers and the Pokémon that they chose flashed on the screen  
"Charmander was chosen by trainer Percy." Percy seemed strong and confident, his short brown hair and strong jaw making it seem he was ready for anything. The newscaster continued  
"Squirtle, chosen by trainer Airen." _'Ugh, I hate the way I look in photos.'_ I exclaimed.  
"And finally trainer Lydia, with her Bulbasaur." Lydia had light brown hair and blue eyes, gentle features yet very familiar, I sat up immediately, thinking back to Oaks lab and Route one, it was her, she was trainer Lydia. These two trainers got their starters at the same time as me, Lydia couldn't be too far ahead, must be the next town, or at least in the forest, who knows when Percy picked his Charmander up and where he is right now, either way, I'm behind.

Knowing how far I was behind I walked to the Gym in Viridian City, only to be stopped at the door by an obviously annoyed doorman being asked the same question too many times,  
"No!" he snapped, "You need seven badges before you take on this Gym, it's too difficult for the likes of you." Rather pissed at that last shot, I walked away attempting to keep my cool, and instead headed to route two. This route housed the entrance to the Viridian Forest, but there were a few Pokémon we were able to battle in order to train, walking throughout the route and managing to catch a male Nidoran. Continuing through the entrance of the forest, the sheer size of this massive maze was incredible, you can barely see the sky amongst the treetops. I started walking through the forest, battling wild Weedle and Caterpie, one trainer in Viridian mentioned Pikachu in this forest as well, but I haven't seen a single one yet. I found a Weedle amongst the grass and managed to catch another making a party of five Pokémon. As I continued this forest kept getting creepier and creepier, then I heard a noise go past behind me, I turn to look but nothing was there, and then in front of me, nothing again, the pace of the sound got quicker and faster and I started to pick up my pace, desperately trying to find the exit, then it appeared, like a yellow blur throughout the grass, it stood a little high from the ground and seemed really up for a battle, it was a Pikachu, and it didn't seem like it wanted me to pass, knowing Squirtle and Pidgey would be useless against an electric type, I decided on Weedle. Pikachu started bolting towards Weedle.  
"Weedle, string shot to slow it down!" Direct hit, didn't affect it much though as it kept coming, Pikachu slammed into Weedle with an effective quick attack, calling it back before it fainted I replaced it with Archie,  
"Let's go Archie, Ember!" that did more damage as the Pikachu seemed to fall, I decided if I was ever going to catch a Pikachu, it was now, I threw the Pokéball and Pikachu reluctantly went inside, only to fail and allow the Pikachu out again. Pikachu's speed came into factor here as it sprinted away, clearly annoyed I attempted to catch it, I missed my chance. Disappointed in myself, I slowly shuffled forward, attempting to find the exit, which was thankfully roughly one hundred metres in front. Truthfully I was relieved to exit this forest. As I left I found the rest of route two, something caught my eye to the left and without watching where I was going I ran into something and sent myself backwards, before I could open my eyes I heard a voice,  
"Oh you again!" I almost immediately knew who it was, but when I opened my eyes, I didn't expect two faces looking down on me.  
"You must be Airen." the male trainer said, focussing better I managed to recognise them,  
"Lydia and Peter?" I inquired which was replied with a loud sigh,  
"Its Percy." I sat up to see a fireplace and what seemed to be dinner on the fire all set up, I didn't even realise it was night already, I must've stayed in that forest all day.  
"Sorry." I said reluctantly, "Lydia? Why were you in a hurry at Oak's Gym and at route one, when you bumped into me?" Lydia seemed to blush a tad,  
"Oh my, was that you, I'm so sorry, I left my summoning letter at home in Celadon, so I was rushing to get to Oak's in time."  
"Ah okay, and what about route one?"  
"Oh, yes well I wanted to travel with Percy here, as we were this semester's intake of trainers, so I asked him to wait before the forest." For a while we stayed up talking about our past, family, and hometowns, even showing each other our current Pokémon. Lydia, from Celadon city started her journey with her Vulpix, she was the same age as me as well, wearing jeans and a Pokémon shirt that looked really cool and actually made me kind of jealous to think I didn't have one. According to Erika, Celadon's Gym leader, she showed the patience and resilience while having the determination needed for training. Percy on the other hand started off with a Dratini, a Dragon type, being from Blackthorn City in the Johto region, the entire city's trainers used Dragon types. Percy being strong and determined wore jeans with a University of Blackthorn City shirt. Though for gym battles, his father advised him to dress for the occasion, recommending dress pants and a buttoned up shirt, and a black blazer with red lining. Percy's reference letter came from Clair, the Blackthorn City Gym leader, saying he had grace and power, a trait all Dragons and Dragon trainers must have. We settled down for the night, Percy and Lydia gladly sharing their dinner with me, and allowing me to stay for the night, I let Archie out of his Pokéball and laid a blanket down next to me for his comfort. Tomorrow morning we would find Pewter City, the museum and the Gym. I started to wonder about the museum and all the mysteries it entails, the Gym and the battle ahead of me, before long, I rolled over and fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

I awoke the next day, with a heavy heart, almost expecting to be at home in Cinnabar Town. Realising I wasn't, I then expected to be alone, when I rolled over to see Percy and Lydia cooking breakfast I nearly jumped out of the sleeping bag, nudging Archie in the back, who then let out a loud howl. Percy and Lydia, who were also looking stunned, nervously greeted me good morning.  
"Morning." I said in a reply which was clearly lacking in enthusiasm. I slid out of my sleeping bag when the fine aroma hit my nose and I almost seemed to float off the ground and upright, Percy had made coffee. Looking at the expression on my face, Percy immediately asked if I wanted some and I nodded before he even finished the question.  
"Yeah, I like my coffee as well." Percy mentioned as I seemed to be more ready for the day now,  
"A coffee is all I need." I replied. We packed up all of our stuff and walked through the gates of Pewter City, the city of stone, the grey buildings didn't do much for contrast. At the back of the town was Pewter's famous museum, known for having a large collection of fossils on display. Just before that was the building we all craved, but none more than Percy who already had his dress pants and blazer on. We walked towards the gym, Percy as calm and cool as ever, Lydia who seemed to fumble around like she forgot something and then there was me, I tried to remain calm but my stomach was doing back flips, our first gym battle was only steps away from happening, I wasn't sure if I got the training in, but I knew I had an advantage, Pewter's rock type Gym will be no match for Squirtle. We reached the doorway of the Gym and stopped in front, staring at the size of the building,  
"So, you must be Oak's latest trio." A voice came from behind us, it was a confident tone, we turned to see who it was, it was Brock, the gym leader, he was tall and strong, he seemed confident and intimidating, almost enough to throw Percy off his game, his scruffy jet black hair only added to his presence.  
"So? Who wants to take me on first?" Lydia seemed to cower behind Percy, though he only stood still for a quick second, matching Brock's gaze, Percy stepped forward,  
"I will." They disappeared into the Gym, not hearing anything for a while, Lydia and I waited patiently, but she seemed to fidget around, obviously nervous about this battle. Finally the door swung open, it was Percy, he walked towards us and held out his hand, holding the Boulder Badge,  
"Your turn Airen." not being able to hold in the smile anymore, we shook hands as I offered him my congratulations. Then I stepped forward, knowing it was my turn, and stepped inside. The gym was massive, the lights lit up every corner and the battlefield was littered with rocks, adding possible defensive and offensive areas, the winner will be the one who can use them the most effectively.  
"You got it, Squirtle, let's go." Squirtle landed in the middle of the battlefield, looking ready for action,  
"Squirtle huh? All right, I like a challenge" He said with a smirk, "Geodude!" The rock Pokémon landed just in front of Squirtle, letting out a loud cry indicating it was ready for anything.  
"Squirtle lets kick this off with Bubble." Bubbles surrounded the gym, covering the battlefield, direct hit on Geodude,  
"Geodude! Tackle!" Geodude's heavy tackle sent Squirtle flying across the battlefield.  
"Squirtle! Water Gun!" A jet of water flew out of Squirtle's mouth but Geodude hid behind a rock and curled up.  
"Ha, that's Geodude's Defence Curl, his defence just went way up, Tackle again." Geodude flew at Squirtle, surprisingly swift for a rock Pokémon.  
"Squirtle, dodge it!" Squirtle jumped behind a rock and Geodude crashed into it, shattering the rock but also its health. "Squirtle, water gun, while it's close!" Squirtle unleased another jet of water directly in the face of Geodude sending him back landing Brocks feet. Brock looked at his Pokémon in shock and after a moment, returned it to his Pokéball.  
"Nice battle, but here comes Onix!" A giant snake made of boulders appeared, standing over twenty-five feet tall it was daunting. Squirtle seemed a little more frightened at the sheer size of Onix  
"Squirtle, let's focus, start off with bubble again!" Onix was too massive to hide amongst the rocks on the field, the bubble scored a critical hit.  
"Onix, Tackle!" Onix dove forward while Squirtle managed to hide behind rocks to dodge them, however that was no good, Onix seemed to splinter the rocks apart but didn't even seem to affect its health, Squirtle dashed from one rock to another in desperation to escape Onix Tackle until there were no more rocks to hide behind, Onix dove down and hit Squirtle head on, sending him back.  
"Squirtle, can you get up? Can you battle?" Squirtle gets up gingerly, looking, tired but ready for action Squirtle gets back into the fray. "Well done Squirtle, let's finish this quickly, Water Gun!" Squirtle runs and jumps getting close to Onix, a fierce Water Gun shoots from Squirtle hitting Onix just below its head. Onix fell toward the ground, a thunderous crash following. Brock recalled Onix  
"Well done, you've earned your first Gym Badge, The Boulder Badge, that was a great battle Airen, thank you." Brock bowed and walked back behind a wall to heal his Pokémon, before Lydia entered looking for her badge as well. I left the gym to find Lydia and Percy outside  
"Percy, that's a nice badge on your lapel, I have one just like it." holding up the badge smiling.  
"Hey, that's great, well done." Lydia cut in, "Well done." Percy then gestured toward Lydia,  
"Your turn, knock him dead." Lydia nodded and disappeared into the Gym, while Percy and I sat outside talking about whom we had left behind. He mentioned he was travelling to earn the pride of his Father, but didn't mention any more than that and didn't seem too willing to bring it up again. Before too long Lydia returned, not even trying to hide it came outside with a giant smile on her face with her badge already attached to her shirt.  
"So that's done, to the museum!" she shouted and ran off, not realizing we still had her backpack. She slowly walked back to us to grab her bag, almost blushing  
"Well come on, let's go." motioning to the large museum behind the Gym.

We walked inside the museum, greeted by a large Aerodactyl fossil in the middle of the room. The first floor covered in information about fossils of the prehistoric Pokémon Aerodactyl, Omanyte and Kabuto. Venturing upstairs the Pewter museum had a space exhibit, walking around the room to see a diagram of the space shuttle and a portion of the Moon Stone, that stories say fell to earth striking Mt. Moon in the form of a meteorite. Lydia seemed to skip from display to display looking at everything and anything, I made sure to read every letter that was on the plaques, the information intrigued and enticed me to learn more, Percy however seemed bored, but before too long, we left. Heading to the Pokémon centre to heal our Pokémon before we left for route three, and Mt. Moon, I knew that was our next destination so I was brimming with excitement, I read everything that it said on the plaques and I was itching to know more. Percy wanted to change out of his suit before we left and before too long he came out wearing his usual jeans but this time wearing a sporting jersey. It was fairly eye catching with a white shirt and a purple-bluish flame sprawled from the top right hand corner to the bottom left. The flame contrasted well with the black lined, red letters saying 'Blackthorn Meteors Grid Iron.'  
"Hey! Blackthorn Meteors!" Lydia yelled with excitement, I clearly had no idea what was going on, "I followed the Celadon Razor Leafs, we won last year, you know." she continued with a smile. Percy held up his arms announcing  
"Three time winners of the UJFL." he then turned so we could see his number "Number twenty-nine, best running back in the league." Now very lost I looked at Percy "UJFL?" Percy opened his mouth to answer but Lydia cut in  
"University of Johto Football League, it's a Grid Iron league." I decided to be a smart ass and remind them that Football was a spherical ball with white and black hexagons and pentagons. They both pulled a face and asked what team I supported, without missing a beat I whipped out an orange and black striped jersey with a logo that said  
"Cinnabar Island Arcanine FC." a team I loved for more than one reason. It was my home team, and Arcanine was the mascot. Percy and Lydia clearly a little disinterested gestured toward the door and we headed off but before too long it was night again, so we started to set up camp near the craters and grab some dinner, all of us needed some well earned sleep, we all won our first badge and both Lydia and I used whatever energy we had left zooming between displays at the museum. Percy quiet and content about his battle while Lydia and I bragged about ours and how we used type to our advantage, though we were both eager to hear how a Dragon type and a Fire type beat Rock with no real type advantage, however, Percy seemed like the type to keep quiet rather than brag so we went unsatisfied. After a lovely dinner, I let out Archie again so he could sleep, and Lydia let out Bulbasaur, however Percy seemed content keeping his in his Pokéball.  
"Airen?" Lydia suddenly spoke up, "Before, at your Gym battle, Percy and I were talking, and thought, considering we are all collecting the badges anyway, did you wanna travel with us all the time?" My eyebrows rose in surprise at the offer but I was rather thankful they wanted me to stay, I started to think I was overstaying my welcome,  
"I would love to join you guys, it's always great to travel with friends." They smiled in reply as we said our goodnights and we each crawled into our respective sleeping bags and before too long, I was asleep.


	6. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

The next morning Archie, who was seemingly barking at his own shadow, rudely awaked me. Unfortunately he also woke Percy and Lydia who weren't too impressed by that fact either. I laughed at our misfortune, much to the unconvincing delight of the others, I've always been like that though, and I have always laughed at my own misfortune and my own shortcomings. Sometimes you just have to let everything go and just laugh. Lydia got breakfast started while I sat nervously, waiting to see Mt. Moon for myself, Percy was more interested in the training we could get in and the Pokémon he could capture, fairly sure he has a one hundred per cent catch rate so far, but again, he isn't one to brag. After a quick breakfast we packed up and both Lydia and I were out stepping Percy two-to-one as we anxiously trekked route three before reaching Mt. Moon. Stopping every now and then to talk, catch Pokémon and wait for Percy to hurry up. We found the entrance to Mt. Moon just behind another Pokémon centre and Percy insisted we stop for a rest so he can recover his Pokémon and switch around his party. Both Lydia and I were surprised that he had enough Pokémon in order to switch it around; I had only caught five were as Lydia had six, obviously Percy had more than six as you can only carry that many on you at a time. After Percy had rested and recovered we exited the centre, made a U-turn and headed straight into Mt. Moon. We barely managed a few steps before being attacked by a Zubat, taking action I leapt to the chance to catch another Pokémon. Sending out Pidgey this time, knowing a flying type will have a clear advantage over most ground bound Pokémon.  
"Quick Attack, Pidgey!" Pidgey goes flying into Zubat with incredible speed and Zubat falls backwards before regaining itself and coming in for Leech Life attack, Zubat manages to bite Pidgey on the neck and starts to regain its health.  
"Shake it off Pidgey! Tackle it!" Pidgey flails Zubat off and dives in for a Tackle, "Gust to finish it off." Immediately Pidgey flaps his wings and creates a massive gust, blowing Zubat into a wall, finishing the battle as Zubat slides down the wall,  
"Time to catch it." I say to myself and throw the ball at the fallen Zubat, it shakes slightly before settling and confirming the capture. I re-collect my ball and was greeted with cheers from Percy and Lydia. _'My sixth Pokémon.'_ I thought quietly as I looked down upon the ball containing Zubat, smiling, knowing that my family back home would be proud of me if they knew, but I'm fairly sure there is no mobile reception in this cave. We were about to start moving again before my Pidgey starting to shine brightly, before I knew it the light had subsided and a Pidgeotto stood where Pidgey had, it had evolved. After that, the evolution kept coming for everyone. After battling numerous Pokémon, we all had at least three Pokémon evolve. Percy had Charmander, Kakuna and Nidoran evolve into Charmeleon, Beedrill and Nidorino. Lydia evolved her Bulbasaur, Metapod and Nirdoran into Ivysaur, Butterfree and Nidorina. My Pokémon evolved from Squirtle and Nidoran to Wartortle and Nidorino. We dove deeper into Mt. Moon, just trying to find our way through, we decided that finding a Clefairy was near impossible so we decided that we would just find our way and head on to Cerulean City. We managed to battle other wild Pokémon, in order to level up our party before the next gym.

We continued on the path that slowly twisted and turned, we found a set of stairs and went deeper again, it was eerily quiet.  
"I don't like this." Percy mentioned, "It's too quiet." I strolled on while Lydia heeded Percy's warning,  
"Nonsense, there's nothing." I reassured them as an alarm sounded _'Too perfect.'_ three men in black suits with a large red "R" emblazed on their shirts popped out of nowhere. The place suddenly turned silent except for Percy muttering in the corner  
"Told ya so." I chose to ignore it and looked intently at the three men,  
"Wait, it's just some kids." the first one barked,  
"Well who did you expect?!"  
"A Pokémon called Mew, seen it around?"  
"No, we haven't." Lydia replied,  
"Well if ya do, leave it alone!" and the three men ran away. We all looked at each other and shrugged and continued on through the cave, before too long we found what we were looking for.  
"The exit." Percy said breaking the silence as we could see the faint outline of an arch way and light shining in, we headed towards it but something caught my attention in the corner of my eye, I turned and walk towards the object and knelt down to investigate.  
"What is it Airen?" Lydia inquired, I picked them up and walked back to the group,  
"Moon Stones." I replied with a glint of a smile on my face, "Three of them, one each." I handed them around to everyone.  
"Moon stones work on the Nido evolution line correct?" Percy looked at Lydia, Lydia looked down at her hand and smiled,  
"Yes, yes they do, and we all have a second stage Nido Pokémon." We all had a moment of silence and contemplation,  
"Well personally, I would like to get to know Nidorino more before I evolve him." I said, followed by chorus of nods and agreement. We walked out of the cave toward route four and all breathed a sigh of relief as we saw the sky once more, it was late afternoon and near sunset, so we headed for Cerulean City as quick as possible. We got to just outside the city boundaries before we decided to set up camp. I thought back on the three men from the cave, searching for Mew,  
"What is Mew?" questioned Percy, this question related to my specialty,  
"Mew is a legendary pokémon, a pokémon that is said to be the ancestor of all others. It is unknown where it resides and there is even some debate amongst researches what it looks like."  
"How do you know about this?" Lydia inquired, "I have always found legendary pokémon, myths and artifacts so interesting, I love researching it and my dream is to become a Professor specializing in this, I'd love to write a book on it as well."  
"Studying at university?" Percy questioned,  
"Yea, at CIU, doing field research for my final year." Both Lydia and Percy understood,  
"I'm on field research to become a Professor as well, but I love researching other, more interesting evolution techniques." Lydia stated and we both looked at Percy, he sighed  
"Ah peer pressure." he chuckled "Not to be original or anything, I want to be a Pokémon Master, a true master, training extremely strong Pokémon and defeating the Regional Champion from every region I can, I mean, I went to uni as well, but my classes were on breeding and battling techniques."  
"You a breeder?" I asked,  
"Not exactly, it was my minor." We all looked at each other, each with a different dream, and we were travelling together.  
"Maybe we can all help each other." Lydia laughed. We all nodded in agreement, we finished our dinner each and before too long we were asleep, knowing that tomorrow, another gym battle awaited us.


	7. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

The beautiful aroma of coffee awaked me again, apparently I was the only one who enjoyed a sleep in between the three of us. We all started to think about our team, we had heard this gym leader only allows two on two battles, so we had to think hard on how to play it. Percy and Lydia had an easier option with a Pikachu and an Ivysaur respectively, but there was still the option for another Pokémon each. I thought across my party and I had already ruled out Archie and Sandshrew for obvious disadvantages. My team became a choice of two from Zubat, Nidorino, Pidgeotto and Wartortle. In the end, the choice was simple, Wartortle's power and Pidgeotto's speed would give me the edge. We packed up our site and headed off into the city towards the Pokémon centre, looking north we saw the famous nugget bridge, shining in a magnificent gold. We healed our Pokémon first before we stocked up on supplies at the mart. Percy quickly changed from his usual jeans and university jersey to his gym dress pants and blazer. We headed to the gym and after finally making it outside,  
"Okay, who is first?" I seem to startle everyone as I broke the silence. Lydia walked up to the doors, turning around,  
"Me first." she giggled as she opened them and disappeared behind closed doors. Soon after Lydia reappeared, holding on to the cascade badge tight,  
"Well done." both Percy and I chimed in as we saw the badge in her hand and smile on her face. Percy stepped up next, walking towards the doors. After a while, Percy returned with the blue, tear shaped badge on his lapel, just next to his boulder badge.  
"My turn." I whispered under breath, I took a heavy sigh, having faith within my Pokémon, I walked past Percy giving him a congratulatory hand shake and opened the doors. I walked in to find a gym covered in water with a wooden platform and the line markings for the field, A young woman with tomboyish orange hair stood at the other end  
"Welcome to the cerulean gym, I am Misty, the leader here, two on two battle good enough for you? Get ready for an all-out offensive with water types!" Misty grabbed her first Pokéball, "Okay kid, get ready, let's go Staryu!" _'A Staryu'_ I thought to myself, time for my Pokémon,  
"Pidgeotto, go!" I threw the Pokéball to the middle of the field, and a Pidgeotto appeared next to it, "Let's go for it Pidgeotto! Quick attack now!" Pidgeotto took off, striking Staryu at full speed,  
"Staryu, reply with water gun." A jet of water shot from Staryu straight into Pidgeotto's chest,  
"Pidgeotto, hit it with sand attack." Pidgeotto kicks up some sand and hits Staryu, Staryu attempts to shake it off, but it doesn't seem to work,  
"That's it Pidgeotto, Tackle!" Pidgeotto comes around and lines Staryu up,  
"Hit it with Water Gun Staryu!" Staryu's water gun fires but narrowly misses Pidgeotto, he then flies full swing into Staryu, nearly knocking it off the platform. Staryu regathers itself, readying for another attack,  
"Tackle, Staryu." Misty commanded,  
"Gust, Pidgeotto, stop it before it hits you!" A massive gust of wind came from the beats of Pidgeotto's wings, Staryu who was now flying at full speed towards Pidgeotto seemed to stop in midair, then get sent backwards, crashing into the wall behind Misty, who dropped to her knees when Staryu slid down and landed on the floor. She recalled her Staryu,  
"Alright kid, you won't win this time, Starmie, let's go!" The evolved version of Staryu appeared before Pidgeotto, Starmie had ten points rather than five and was a purple colour rather than the orange of Staryu.  
"Pidgeotto, you can stay in, you've got this." Pidgeotto cried loudly, however Misty was doing a poor job masking her smirk,  
"Think again, Starmie, Bubblebeam!" It was a swift and strong attack as a stream of bubbles hit Pidgeotto head on, and Pidgeotto fell out of the sky, hitting the ground hard,  
"Pidgeotto!" this was an unusual sight, I had seen them hurt and badly, but never fainted, I gasped and attempted to regather my confidence. I could see Misty smiling but my gaze turned serious,  
"Wartortle, it's up to you.", A Wartortle appeared from the Pokéball in my hand, I knew what to do straight away, "This shouldn't take too long." I challenged,  
"Bite, Wartortle!" Wartortle leapt into action, jumping at Starmie and sinking its teeth in, Starmie seemed to lose all of its energy nearly immediately, I smiled  
"Did you forget bite is a Dark type move? Starmie and Psychic types are weak to Dark types." Misty's jaw dropped almost as hard as Starmie did,  
"That was too easy." she whispered as she retrieved Starmie, I tried to smile but I now related to the expression, the sadness and the heartbreak. I recalled Wartortle and walked up to Misty offering a handshake,  
"Great battle." I mentioned "You almost had me for a second." I smiled, thankfully, she smiled back,  
"this is yours" she held out the Cascade Badge, I gratefully accepted and walked away. As I made it outside I couldn't see Percy and Lydia at first,  
"Airen! How'd you go?" I turned around to see Lydia and Percy, however Percy had changed from his suit to his jeans and jersey again.  
"Two down, six to go" I boasted.  
"Well done, now let's head to the Nugget Bridge."

"Wait, why are we going to the Nugget Bridge?" I inquired,  
"Some guy in town told me if you beat all five trainers you get a Nugget!"  
"Plus that's where Bill lives!" Lydia blurted out, literally jumping into the conversation. We set off towards Nugget Bridge, I only thought of meeting Bill, Percy was the only one to challenge the five on Nugget Bridge, and I don't blame him, he takes on any challenge that comes his way, something you can't help admire about him. With Percy's team he easily took out all of the opposing Pokémon, while watching him battle the second trainer the thought struck me that this was the first time both Lydia and I ever saw him battle another trainer, it was intense, he was ruthless in his attacks and extremely confident, there was a certain fire in his eyes that was never present during a normal conversation, you would never know this was him except the likeness. I started to wonder if I was the same, a different person in the arena to outside it, and even Lydia, I couldn't imagine her being so ruthless in attack compared to her sweet, happy nature in person. By the time I had finished my train of thought, Percy had conquered the bridge,  
"Well done, here is your nugget, as promised." He handed Percy the nugget, it shinned in the sunlight, it wasn't smooth or crafted, it was a pure gold rock.  
"Now, you are obviously a great trainer, and a great trainer seems to have great companions." he nodded to Lydia and I "Tell you what, how about you three join my organisation, you are exactly what we need, you'll go far for sure."  
"And what organisation is this!" I butted in,  
"Why the exquisite Team Rocket of course, don't tell me you've never heard of us?" handing us what seemed to be a business card, it was a shiny black, with a large 'R' in the middle, Percy flipped over the card and I snatched it out of his hands,  
"hey!" he protested,  
"No thanks." I said handing him back the card and I gave the others a forceful shove in the right direction walking away from him.  
"Oi! I wasn't done! Ekans go!" Too easy I thought to myself,  
"Archie, you're up!"  
"Poison Sting Ekans!"  
"Archie jump and use Ember!" Archie nimbly dodges the poison pins firing at him and rains fire down on Ekans, shaken but not defeated, Ekans leaps at Archie's neck for a bite attack,  
"Archie, Flame Wheel." Flames start to spin around Archie as he runs full belt into a soaring Ekans. Sending Ekans back to the trainers' feet, motionless.  
"Alright, Zubat's turn." A Zubat appeared before Archie, flapping its wings at a hundred miles per hour just to keep it airborne.  
"Wing Attack Zubat!" a faint smile appeared on my face,  
"Archie, Fire Fang." I said coolly, Archie stayed still, waiting for Zubat to come to him, the fire built in his mouth and just when Zubat was in range, Archie bit down on Zubat's body and it fell to the ground frozen and still. The Team Rocket trainer stopped and returned his Zubat, bowed his head and walked away, not even saying a word.

After the battle, Percy and Lydia just stared at me, realising they hadn't seen me battle yet either, I had to break this awkward silence,  
"So Bill's house right?" a terrible attempt really as only half of that managed to be audible, however Lydia heard Bill's name and went back to her usual self  
"Yes, come on, let's go." Grabbing at Percy's hand, who seemed to have a hint of a smile that reflected he was somewhat impressed. I shared his smile, and without saying another word we set off through the maze of trees that blocked our path to Bill's house, we were almost there before we saw, or at least thought we saw, a light brown blur weave between the trees, this thing was fast, nearly surrounding us in this blur.  
"There has to be more than one." I said, even if I was right, it was impossible to distinguish where one ended and the other began. We managed to stand back to back, the three of us so we could see in every direction, then the blur disappeared. Three Eevee's were around us, one in front of each of us,  
_'Told ya so'._ I gloated  
"Eevee's!" Lydia squealed, so loud both Percy and I jumped a little, the Eevee's seemed less intimidated,  
"Okay, they want a battle, let's go for it." Percy challenged and both Lydia and I nodded in unison, we got our Pokémon ready,  
"Let's go!" We all yelled,  
"STOP!" whoever yelled that, it seemed to echo throughout the shallow forest we found ourselves in.  
"Please stop, those Eevee's are mine, well they are gifts, yes, gifts for other trainers." This voice finally became a person through the trees, returning all the Eevee's to their respective Pokéballs,  
"I apologise, you trainers must've thought you had the capture of your short lives, Eevee's are extremely rare."  
"Yes they are." Lydia seemingly excited while Percy and I were still wondering who this man might be. He must've recognised our quizzical look,  
"Oh, I am Bill, the Pokémon researcher". Percy and I sighed with relief, finally finding who were looking for, Lydia wasn't any less thrilled than before, we figured she already knew who were talking to.  
"I'm so glad you found my Eevee's, I've heard that Oak's trio was coming my way soon, these are gifts for the trio..." We tried to interrupt him to introduce ourselves but he seemed to like the sound of his own voice  
"... the Eevee's are so quick, as I am sure you noticed, they are extremely rare as they have something called a branched evolution, the first Pokémon we currently know of to have one..." Lydia managed to break his monologue  
"I know, I really want a Vaporeon!" Bill finally caught back up with reality after staring into space for so long, before he could start up again, Percy introduced us,  
"You three are the trio!" he seemed shocked and surprised,  
"Well yes, sorry I'm not always dressed in my Meteors jersey." Percy blurted out, trying a snappy comment back,  
all I thought was _'what else did you expect?'  
_"Sorry, come back to my lab, we can talk more there." Bill led us back to his lab, overlooking a river it was a beautiful view, we got inside,  
"Would you like some tea?" We stopped and managed a simultaneous  
"No thank you."  
"Well I suppose you all want your Eevee's now, since I mentioned it, it's the least I can do for helping me find them, besides Oak and I have a deal that I always give his newest trio an Eevee, he always give me the best..." I was the one to stop him this time,  
"Could you release all the Eevee's here, I would like the one that challenged me to battle." He seemed like a real fighter, a Pokémon I could depend on as well.  
"Sure." Bill shook his head after going off on a tangent again, he smiled seemingly knowing why I asked for such a request, he released all three and the Eevee walked straight up to me and sat by me,  
"Yep." I said with a smile, "This one is mine."  
"Okay, but you need to put some Pokémon in storage." he gestured to the PC "Log on by inserting your Pokédex in the slot and then follow the prompts, to store a Pokémon you place it in that spot there, select deposit and the ball disappears and goes into storage, to withdraw, select that and the ball will appear in that same spot, clever eh?" I followed the instruction, and stored my Sandshrew, so I could take control of the Eevee.  
"One day, I want a storage system that holds three thousand Pokémon, a Pokémon Bank of sorts..." he seemed really excited for this, "...but that won't happen for some time now." He continued, dropping his head. We all took our respective Eevee's, then Bill mentioned we all get a stone as well, to evolve them when the time seemed right, Lydia automatically took the Water stone, Percy taking the Thunder stone, so the Fire stone was left for me, I didn't particularly want a Flareon, however I am sure I could use it later. We thanked Bill for his hospitality, offering us a place to stay the night, we turned it down, suggesting we'd rather camp out, and we said our farewells and left with our Eevee's in hand, We made it as far as the other side of the tiny forest, just before the bridge before it got too dark, we set up our camp site and started dinner. There wasn't any guessing about what the conversation was that night, what moves can our Eevee's use, the level, when to evolve them.  
"Evolving Pokémon is all about the right timing, if you leave it too long, you might miss some important moves, same as if you evolve too early." Percy explained.  
"Well when you do evolve them, can I be there." Lydia said, a little too enthusiastically, "You know I wanna be a Professor of Evolution." her cheeks turned red, almost embarrassed at her dream.  
"Of course." I replied with a smile, "Tell me Professor Lydia." I joked, "What do you know about evolving via friendship and happiness?" She was pleasantly surprised that I seemed to know so much,  
"I've heard rumours and stories that certain Pokémon evolved during certain conditions, I've heard of Eevee evolving to Pokémon known as Espeon and Umbreon as well. It will evolve into Espeon with high friendship during the day and Umbreon with high friendship during the night." I smiled while Lydia talked, she knew so much, but also because I've seen drawings and pictures, Umbreon was the Pokémon I wanted, so I released it at night to sleep with me, as well as Archie. The two seemed to get along, which I was happy about, not a few hours before I had my hand on Archie, ready to send him to battle against this exact Eevee, but that was all past, they are friends now, they were playing for a while actually, chasing each other around the camp site, we all sat and laughed, entertained at these two seemingly played tag. We all went to bed, reminiscing on a long day, we had all seen another side of Percy and they saw another side of me, I'm still curious to see Lydia in battle, resisting the urge to challenge her now, I rolled over and fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

I awoke during the night by the subtle yet constant nudging in the middle of my back, turning over in an effort to ignore it, something grabbed my shirt and tried to drag me out of my sleeping bag, I open to see Archie, my shirt is his jaw, looking beyond him, Eevee as well staring down at me, Archie noticing my eyes wide and awake, released my shirt and ran a few steps away, and started barking in a fair off distance,  
"Quiet." I commanded in a somewhat loud whisper, "You'll wake everyone." Clearly not listening to me, I got myself out of the sleeping bag to see what the matter was, he had never acted this way before, ignoring my commands, standing still and staring off into the distance.  
_'Something, someone must be there.'_ I thought to myself as I slipped on my shoes, I had decided to follow Archie to see what was going on, I'd let the others know in the morning, let them sleep for now. I walked slowly over to Archie, just as I got to him, he took off, he was fast, and I flew into a sprint myself in an effort to keep an eye on him. I caught up to him in Cerulean city to find another man in a black suit, with a red 'R' on the shirt. A Team Rocket member, seemingly fiddling with the window of this house, Archie let out a strong, sharp bark and he turned in pure fear and shock. In a glimpse of the street light I recognised him, and he recognised Archie as well, the man from the Nugget Bridge, he took off and shortly after Archie did as well. I found everything in me to keep up with them and before long the man escaped through to the next city, passing through the gates, I flew into the gates at full force, only to be thrown backwards by recoil, the gates we locked shut, he made it through to Saffron but I could hardly budge them open. Archie stopped and sniffed, slowly walking around in small circles before he headed to a nearby door, 'Underground Pass.' the sign read, I push this door easily open and Archie bolted through once more. He ran down the stairs, down the long corridor, when I finally caught up with him, he had stopped about halfway down the corridor, staring, barking at the wall, as if the scent of the man was in the wall itself, there was no sign or hint of a door or passage, so I gave up the chase, Archie was a little more stubborn, barking for another ten minutes before he finally listened. I returned Archie and walked outside to see the sunlight coming over the hills, the first hint of daylight, almost a relief, before too long, a silhouette of two people and a small Pokémon appeared on the horizon, slowly coming closer, it was Percy, Lydia and my Eevee.

"Airen!" I heard Lydia yell as Eevee pounced at me, "Why did you run off?" I told them the whole story, about the man breaking in, the gateway to Saffron and the pass that I found, I told them I didn't want to wake them as well, they were thankful however annoyed that I didn't call on them for help.  
"Eevee woke us up, seemingly shortly after you left." Percy explained, "We have already packed everything up, got everything we need."  
"Should we tell an officer about the man?" I inquired,  
"Nah, you stopped it anyway, right? Besides, we should be heading forward." Lydia gestured toward the pass, we nodded in agreement and entered the Underground Pass. We walked the empty corridors to the end. I seemed to follow the sides of the walls, looking for a hidden passage, no such luck. We exited with no hassle at all to find ourselves at another winding route, turning back to again see the gates to Saffron City locked tight. We found this route a great one for finding and training Pokémon, both Lydia and I managed to find an Abra, after much hassle and many Pokéballs wasted, it was a Pokémon greatly desired by us both and on top of that Zubat evolved into a Golbat, Percy was less than thrilled about the Pokémon we found here, he caught a Mankey, but nothing else, either way, it ended up in his storage box. We stumbled forward, exhausted from our early morning start, eventually finding our way to Vermillion City, a city on the water. We headed to the dock, to see the S.S Anne still in construction, much to our disappointment, we've heard it will be amazing when complete. We were walking back from the dock when Percy spots a Horsea, popping out of the water, desperately wanting one, Percy took this opportunity. Strategically, he released his Pikachu, one Thunder shock and Horsea was ready for capture, surrendering to the Pokéball without any resistance. We looked around the beautiful city, finding the gym in the process, but none of us were up for the battle today, so we headed out to route eleven, just for a bit of sightseeing.  
"Hey, you wanna battle?" a trainer from a hidden part of the path confronted us, "Any of you, come on who is brave enough?" this guy wasn't too much older than us, young, but slightly older,  
"Sure" Lydia shrugged. She threw her Pokéball, releasing a Spearow, a small yet not to be misjudged Pokémon. The man sent out a Poliwag,  
"Use Water Gun!"  
"Dodge and use Pursuit!" Lydia commanded, in a strong, unyielding voice, the command was a quick response, and Spearow's response was quicker, rising high to avoid the spray of water but then diving fast and hitting the Poliwag full on. At this point, the trainer would know who has the upper hand, however Lydia stayed low and concentrated,  
"Aerial Ace Spearow! Let's finish this!" Spearow rose, came around and dove again, hitting Poliwag harder at a faster pace, Poliwag lay still on the ground, frustrated, the man sent another out, a Horsea,  
"Start with Bubblebeam!"  
"Fury Attack Spearow." Spearow seemed to be gaining speed with each attack, each turn it rose higher and dove faster than the last attack,  
"Aerial Ace!", It rose higher again, and dove with such speed I am not even sure I witnessed the move, nevertheless, Horsea was beaten. As we rushed to congratulate Lydia, Spearow was covered in a faint light that grew brighter by the second, becoming near impossible to look at before dying down in half the time to reveal a Fearow, Spearow's evolved state, Lydia rushed to its side and managed a hug with Fearow. The young man approached us,  
"Wow that's amazing, did you wanna trade your Fearow for my Snorlax?" we stopped in bewilderment,  
"Why didn't you use Snorlax? That would've been much better than Poliwag or even Horsea." Percy questioned,  
"I know." The guy looking embarrassed "It's just...I can't afford to feed it, I gamble heaps at the Celadon Game Corner, I won this Snorlax there, but I've been on a losing streak since, I can't afford to feed it any more, he needs a good home, I might have to release it into the wild." He walked off down the path after that, never mentioned to get another word out of him.

We decided to stick around route eleven, at least for the night, tomorrow we would take on Lt. Surge and we needed our rest, we have heard he is a tough battler and is ruthless in fights. That night we set up camp early, more so we could plan our next battle, and ask each other for help, Lt. Surge has three Pokémon, allowing us the same right. I went with Archie, Eevee Pidgeotto and Nidorino, however I needed to train a little more. I explained to the others and wandered off a little, training my Eevee and Nidorino. Before too long Pidgeotto had evolved and Nidorino had levelled up a few times, after a while I approached Nidorino.  
"Nidorino, this stone... well... this stone will make you stronger, make you more powerful, however it will also change you, you will evolve to be stronger, but to be another Pokémon entirely." He nodded along to what I was saying, yet completely oblivious to my point, I sighed  
"I am just gonna put this down on the ground here, if you want to, walk up to it and touch it, and you will evolve, if you don't, it's okay." I put the moon stone down and backed away a little, Nidorino looked down at the stone, and back to me, it shuffled forward and pressed its' nose gently on the stone, Nidorino was covered in a bright light that didn't last very long, but where Nidorino had stood, a Nidoking now stands, only just over four foot but you can see it oozed power and strength, I gave it a grateful hug, Archie and Eevee also came over. Achieving my task I made it back to find everyone already asleep, I did my custom routine, releasing Archie to sleep beside me, as it turns out, he became a great guard dog, and a great source of warmth if needed. After an exhausting day, I quickly fell asleep, looking forward to another gym battle.


	9. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

The sun rose over the water to the east, the ripples in the water reflected the sunlight, like small concentrated sun beams, the bridge was basked in light as well, not a soul wandered on that bridge so early, it was entirely peaceful. It was, until Archie noticed I was awake, he pounced on me, delighted to see me open my eyes again, like tomorrow would be my last, it was the best thing about Archie, he was always happy to see me. I had a bright day ahead of me, we had heard that Lt. Surge was a tough trainer, I mean, he was a gym leader, and there are no easy battles in a gym. However, I had my line up, Percy and Lydia had theirs as well, we had breakfast and packed up, heading into town, the gym had a strong feel to it. It was always one trainer at a time, which always made it daunting and intimidating. This time I had elected to go first, I was nervous but confident, Lydia and Percy wished me luck as I headed inside, the doors swung open, the room was a bright electric yellow, pillars were metal and I swear they pulsed with electricity, but I noticed all of that second to the silhouette of a man at the end of the arena, a tall man, but not lanky, muscular, he was taller than me and probably twice my size in width,  
"Welcome to the Vermillion City Gym." his voice boomed and echoed throughout the gym, a little shocked, I re-gathered myself,  
"I'm here to challenge you for a Thunder Badge!" He stepped out into the light, being able to see him for the first time, his body near pure muscle, he wore army cargo pants, boots, an olive green tank top that seemed to be a little small for him but you could hardly mistake the dog tag chains hanging from his neck, clearly a member of the army, finally the name Lt. Surge made sense.  
"Do you actually think you have enough to beat me, my electric Pokémon saved me in the war in Unova." He was extremely confident, so much so it nearly put me off, I was confident before I walked into this gym. I took my spot on the arena,  
"Well, are we gonna do this or not?" I said confidently, though I was anything but.  
"Voltorb, Let's go!" Surge announced, a small rounded Pokémon appearing in the middle of the field,  
"Nidoking, it's your turn" I released Nidoking, expecting to see a hint of fear on Surge, none followed, Nidoking was a ground type, I had thought this through, he smirked  
"Voltorb, Screech." A deafening sound reverberated around the entire gym, I had to hold my hands to my ears, I managed to get a glimpse of Surge, who was standing there, arms crossed, in the same position I saw him before, when the noise finally stopped I started to think what I could do, _'too late'_.  
"SonicBoom, now Voltorb!"A move that attacked with sound alone, three waves flew into the chest of Nidoking, screech made it impossible for him to prepare for that attack, and that attack hit him hard. I started to panic, and before I knew it, Voltorb had launched a tackle that fainted Nidoking. I wasn't even sure what had happened, but I was already one down. Surge didn't let this one pass  
"Well? Are we gonna do this or not?" he mocked, my shock turned to anger, Eevee's turn, this time I was determined to get in quick,  
"Eevee, Quick Attack." Eevee flew like it was shot from a cannon and right into Voltorb, doing little damage but more than Nidoking managed, Surge was a man of military and strategy, which became apparent after he used screech again, Eevee dazed and unprepared was hit with SonicBoom soon after as well,  
"Swift Eevee." an array of stars fired from Eevee and directly hit Voltorb, nearly guessing its next move but not being able to avoid it, the tackle hit Eevee straight on and flew him across the arena to my feet, two down, Archie left. Thankfully Surge decided not to mock me this time, which was good, my anger had grown to the point where I might've actually risked my life to punch him in the face. I was two Pokémon behind and I had nothing to lose,  
"Archie, you're up!" Archie appeared from the Pokéball ready and raring to go, looking quite literally, all fired up.  
"Flame Wheel, Archie!" he cloaked himself in fire and charged at Voltorb. It felt the full force of that attack, it rolled to its side and didn't manage to roll back, _'I had finally beaten this bloody Voltorb' _I thought,  
"No matter, Pikachu's turn." Surge called, a small Pikachu appeared, lightning quick and agile,  
"Quick Attack, Pikachu." I barely saw Pikachu move, however I did see Archie wince and that hit,  
"Archie, Fire Fang!" Archie built up the flames in his mouth and charged down Pikachu sinking his jaws in deep, however it seemed to backfire slightly. Archie was slow to move back and didn't move as quick, I think he was paralysed by Pikachu's electric body, however it deeply damaged Pikachu as well,  
"Archie, Ember, it might be all we need." Archie managed to shake it off a little and produced an ember attack that nearly covered the entire building, Pikachu being unable to escape was hit hard and fell to the ground, fainted. My fear was slowly turning around though I had not met his strongest Pokémon yet, and Archie was in bad shape, this was a tough battle so he gained a few levels as well.  
"It's all up to you, Raichu!" Archie was in bad shape, and this Pokémon looked ready for a fight, the odds were against me.  
"Archie, you know what to do." Archie charged with a Fire Fang, clamping Raichu hard, luck was in our favour, Archie's attack left a mark, a burn, Raichu was hurt, and bad.  
"Raichu, ThunderBolt!" The streak of lightning came from Raichu and was conducted by the pillars, it struck Archie and he took a knee. Archie was on his last legs, I knew he was, he looked back at me, I saw the determination in his face, we thought alike, we both knew the only thing that would end this, but would be dire consequences for Archie. I nodded to him, he looked back to Raichu, steadied himself and took aim, he leapt at Raichu, a full blown Take Down attack, Raichu hardly moved afterwards, faint at Surges' feet, Archie managed to walk back to me, look a little worse for wear, I knelt down to him and he put his paws on my lap and I gave him a hug, I was extremely grateful and proud of what he did, a single tear rolled down my cheek, I was overjoyed with Archie. I heard footsteps close to my head and I looked up to see Surge over me, I got up and faced him, offering a handshake for a great match,  
"Well done." he said in his usual booming voice, "The Thunder Badge, you definitely earned that the hard way."  
"No I didn't." smiling, looking down "Archie won this one." I turned away and walked out of the gym, never have I felt prouder of my Archie.

The doors shut behind me as I greeted my friends again,  
"How'd you go?" Percy questioned,  
"Good, I won, but I really need a Pokécentre."  
"I'll go with you while Percy takes on Surge." Lydia gave a hug to Percy, "for good luck" she reassured him, she blushed slightly suggesting it was for more than that. She then walked over to me. A massive smile crossed my face,  
"You're blushing" I chuckled, gesturing toward her  
"Shut up, I am not! Come on, let's go." she smiled, and we walked away leaving Percy in his usual suit. I decided not to mention the hug. Instead we talked over my battle and a strategy for hers. I told her she would be okay, I've seen her battle, she will be great. We healed my Pokémon and made it back to the gym as Percy walked out of it, seemingly confident, and he didn't take as long as I did.  
"Got it Percy."  
"You bet." He said with a slight chuckle, Lydia smiled,  
"Well done." she said, oddly proud. "My turn I guess." She said with a heavy heart, almost fearful after my encounter, she disappeared into the gym. Percy and I talked over our battles. He definitely found it easier than I did. Not long afterwards Lydia walked out, Thunder Badge in hand but shaken, like she just had the hardest battle of her life.  
"Come on, let's head to Silence Bridge, I would like to visit Lavender Town." Percy said respectively. We managed back out to route eleven, where we spent the previous night, past the entrance of the Diglett Tunnel, made entirely by Diglett and led straight to Pewter City. We chose to go past the tunnel, and continue forward, we must've spent a lot of time in the gym because it was near dusk. We set up a campfire and settled down for the night. I opened up a notepad in my bag and started to scratch down some notes, Percy and Lydia questioned my actions,  
"My book I wanted to write, I'm starting."  
"What is it about?"  
"The legendary Pokémon, I am fascinated, so I've decided to write it all down." They all gave me an approving smile and nod, I continued writing notes and mixing in current conversation. I stopped writing to go to sleep. I looked over at Archie, snug in his little bed and I smiled proudly. _'He really saved me' _I thought to myself, _'he did so well today'. _I turned over thinking over that battle, and fell asleep very quickly.


	10. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

Today I awoke with an unusual start, a call, from Elysia of all people. I had nearly forgotten her voice until I heard it on the phone for the first time in a long while. I decided to ask her for a favour, she was the only one I could trust, let's face it, I haven't thought much about anyone else, including my family, and she is the only one to contact me since I left. She told me I'd see her soon, she was soon embarking on her journey, she had heard back from Oak, and she was waiting for her letter, I was so happy for her, couldn't be more proud. I assured her we would meet up, and I said my goodbye and as soon as I hung up the phone, Lydia looked up.  
"Oh, you are awake." she mentioned, just realising this was the first time I was up before them, I laughed and walked over to the fire to make some coffee,  
"Yea, I figured it was my turn to make coffee."  
"Coffee?" Percy muttered, rolling over and sitting up, Lydia and I burst into fits of laughter as the kettle boiled and I made coffee. We packed up our things and headed off toward Silence Bridge, a bridge that ran the entirety of route twelve, when we finally made it onto the bridge we realised why it was called that, there was no sound, nothing, no fisherman around despite being a well known fishing spot, no Pokémon noises, not even the whistle of the wind. We continued forward, seemingly tip toeing, trying not to disturb the eerie peace. We managed to get roughly half way too Lavender Town before we heard a noise that stopped us all in our tracks, a cute little giggle came from behind us, we turned to see it, but there was nothing there, walking forward again and we flinched, a small, pink Pokémon was floating in front of us. It was small, and almost cat-like, but had shorter arms than its hind-legs. It moved in the air almost like it was swimming, circling and spinning in the air. From nowhere a small pink bubble appeared in front of our face, but before we could figure out what it was, mew had popped it, forcing Lydia to let out an involuntary squeal which only lasted for a millisecond, however the redness in her cheeks stayed for much longer. It giggled again and circled around us, for a moment, it hit me, I've seen it before, in a book, on Cinnabar Island, it circled a few more times before it flew away, we followed it for a second before it vanished into thin air,  
"It can't be." I whispered, Lydia turned to face me, in order to question what I had just mumbled to myself, only to be interrupted by a man in a black suit.  
"Where is it?! Where did it go?!" he barked,  
"Where did what go?" Percy asked, clearly curious,  
"Mew! Ugh, idiots." He shoulder checked us and ran down toward route thirteen, Percy made a move to chase him down, seeing red after that comment, only to be held back by a gentle hand from Lydia.  
"Not worth it." She spoke softly.

We found Lavender Town, as with the Silence Bridge, this town barely made a sound. It was seemingly covered in purple, the roof and walls with different shades of purple and even the plants only grew purple leaves and petals. There was no gym here, it was extremely peaceful, not a person in site. We saw a small building in the corner of the town, and before we knew it we saw a man walk out of it. An elderly gentleman, with a tear in his eye and wilted flowers in his hand, we approached him carefully, trying not to alarm him.  
"Ah, hello youngsters, come to pay your respects?" we didn't speak a single syllable, so he kept talking,  
"I was just paying my respects to my old friend, cleaning the tombstone and replacing the flowers." he muttered holding up the wilted ones,  
"That's really nice, you must miss your friend a lot." Lydia said with a tender smile, the elderly man smiled and nodded, he shuffled past us as we entered, we knew what this building was, it was a cemetery for Pokémon. We made it inside, we found the old man friend easily, and it was clearly well kept. We all stood silently and bowed our heads for a moment's respect. After a minute we exited and realised why this town was so peaceful, almost like the entire town was eternally mourning the Pokémon laid to rest in this house of memories. A phone rang a peaceful tone, however loud in a quiet town such as this. Lydia looking slightly embarrassed answered her phone without a moment's hesitation. Her face grew the widest smile and she started to almost jump for joy, not getting off the ground but just bouncing on her toes. She hung up the phone, turning on her toes so fast she almost tumbled over, she just smiled at us and said,  
"That was my best friend, we are going to Celadon."  
"We went to Celadon University together, we went to the Razor Leaf games together, she's my best friend." We were both excited for her now, I wasn't sure about Percy, but my town was small, we had a college and a team and everything, but that was barely pieced together, my only friend from school was Elysia.

We all bounced along from there on, along our journey we knew we would all meet our families and see our homes again. We strolled through route eight, stopping for battles and levelling up, preparing ourselves, as we all know Celadon has a gym, one worth preparing for, and luckily this was a grass type gym, a clear advantage for Archie. We hit a dead end after figuring out that this gate to Saffron was also closed,  
"Hang on, I know a shortcut." Lydia mentioned, walking over to a building similar to the one Archie ran down outside of Cerulean, another underground pass, except this one was locked,  
"At high school, we were friends with the daughter of an officer Jenny and a Nurse Joy." She said as she whipped out a key  
"Let me guess, the daughters name was Jenny and Joy?" I said,  
"No, their names were Tora Jenny and Isla Joy." We heard a click from the lock and continued inside "Luckily, Tora was never a good cards player."  
"Wait..." Michael interrupted, "...They have first names?"  
"Yea, Jenny and Joy is just a last name, did you think they were all called the same?" She couldn't help but giggle a bit, "Jenny and Joy are a last name, they are part of the same family" locking it behind us, we continued down this dimly lit path, barely being able to see three metres in front of us. Percy seemed content with this new knowledge, but I couldn't help but ask,  
"What happens to the boys?" Lydia looked back at me,  
"off to do whatever they want I guess, there's no pressure on them, only the girls have the pressure of continuing on the tradition." I nodded along, wondering where this tradition had come from, "Unless you marry one, then you are kinda stuck with housework and looking after the kids." I mulled this over for a second,  
"So you're telling me that they do nothing but housework and father children to a beautiful nurse?" Lydia shot me a look of disgust, "Just re-evaluating career paths" We had almost reached the end, when an echoing yet inviting voice found us  
"I knew you would use this route."  
"Erika!" Lydia yelled, sprinting down the hall and into the arms of a young, black haired girl, she was wearing a yellow kimono with decorative red leaves.  
"Hello everyone." she smiled, she had a beautiful and gentle voice, "I'm Erika, if you hadn't figured out before, and I am sure you are aware I am the Celadon City gym leader also, you must be Airen and Peter.", Percy sighed loudly,  
"it's Percy."  
"He gets that a lot, we are looking forward to our battle." I cut in, though all I could think of is how much I wanted to win the badge. We exited the passage, following onto route seven, a small and straight forward path, but what it lacked in design, it more than made up for in beauty and aesthetics, peaceful and elegant, Erika seemed to pass through the route savouring each flower she came across.  
"You know what? Let's go see a game." Erika announced, "There just happens to be one today." Lydia started humming and Percy started to get excited, he wanted to see another game in a different city, being a fan, I understood that as well. I was a football fan, I didn't know anything about grid iron, but I tagged along. We headed towards a gap in a line of trees, trudging down the path led by Erika we found a clearing. The ground rumbled and sank, a line appeared in the centre and the two chunks of land and they parted and slid under. Then a massive stadium started to rise, the lights flickered on and the trees behind us parted to allow for more crowds to rush through.  
"isn't technology amazing" I marvelled at the stadium in front of me,  
"yes it is, how do you have the cinnabar stadium?" Percy asked  
"it's on land, nothing like this"  
"Typical backwards island" he mocked. I maturely poked my tongue at him as we entered the stadium. We took our seats amongst cheering fans and a booming voice came over a loud speaker  
"Welcome to Celadon University, for a game between the home town Razor Leafs!" The stadium erupted in noise, "Against the Vermillion City Thunderbolts." The two teams lined up, and the Razor Leafs kicked off.


	11. Chapter 10

We exited the stadium in a sea of people in green, cheering for the Razor Leafs team, winning the game 27-10. I turned just in time to see the stadium refold on itself and hide beneath the ground.  
"So, Lydia, you always did get the good-looking ones." Erika teased, nodding towards Percy  
Lydia and Percy exchanged a look, "Oh no, no we aren't together."  
"Oh, so he is single." Erika smiled, like she had just won first prize in a lottery. Percy began blushing to the point where he almost became a street lamp.  
"So where are you guys staying tonight, you can stay at mine tonight if you want?" Erika smiled to Percy, he gave an uncomfortable look and turned away.  
"Lydia, aren't you from here? Don't your family live here?"  
"Nah, they moved to Olivine city when I decided to stay here to study, but now my mother, father and little brother Brendan live in Littleroot Town, in the Hoenn Region."  
"Norman, right?" Erika questioned, "He was cute for an older guy."  
"He IS my father!"  
"Yeah, yeah, I know, we shook on it back in tenth grade, look I am offering a place to stay tonight."  
"Well thank you." Lydia did not sound sincere, "But we will stay at the Pokémon Centre, I trust Isla's mother is still in charge?" Lydia made it sound rhetorical and then she stormed off toward the town. I however actually wanted to know the answer to that question, so I ran off after her, followed closely behind by Percy, after realizing he would be alone with Erika if he didn't.

"God she's so frustrating!" We heard Lydia yell from the bathroom, I exchanged looks with Percy,  
"Do you know what this is about?"  
"Dude, no idea, like is Lydia jealous of Erika flirting with me?"  
"Yeah, that part was obvious."  
"But where did this come from?"  
"Mate, she has always..."  
I got interrupted by the bang from the bathroom door, Lydia burst through with a towel wrapped around her head,  
"You alright." I asked, Lydia turned and shot me a look that would burn through the wall and she paced back into the bathroom,  
"Dude, you're braver than I am." Percy whispered to me  
"No, I am stupider than you are."  
Lydia came back into the room again, quieter than last time, but she was dressed,  
"I am going out, don't wait up." Lydia headed over toward the door,  
"Wait, huh?"  
"I am going out, I'll get the lights."

I woke up to knocking on the door, I drearily got up and walked over, the floor creaked and Percy mumbled, I sneaked the rest of the way, opening the door to Lydia,  
"Forgot my keys." She looked almost ashamed but that might have been me being tired, she muttered something and then shuffled past me and went to bed. A quick check of the clock, I groaned a little louder than I expected to,  
_'two in the morning?! Alright, time to get some sleep.'_

We got up to coffee and breakfast, and we found Erika in the lobby waiting for us, I half expected to hear an apology,  
"Percy, you're even better looking in the morning." I was wrong  
"Erika, can we have a gym battle today?" I cut in before it got worse,  
"For you, anything." she never took her eyes off Percy, Lydia's look got even more frightening, if it were possible, Erika didn't seem to notice and Percy seemed very afraid. Erika seemed to brush off her dazed look and refocus,  
"Okay, you want a battle, shall we go right now?" Erika turned on her heel and walked outside, we followed her until we reach the doors of the gym.  
"Who wants to go first?" she asked in a sweet but wicked tone,  
"We were, uh, well I was kinda hoping we could sit in and watch each other's gym battles?" Erika mulled it over silently, for a minute or so.  
"You know, gym rules state, one at a time, but it can be our secret." She smiled at Percy as if she meant something else, "Come on in."

Percy rolled Erika rather easily with his Charmeleon, My battle with Erika lasted a roughly the same amount of time as his, my Archie won with no trouble. Lydia, however, went last, her reunion with Erika was going terribly, and she was not enjoying her stay in Celadon. Lydia paced over to the opposite end of the gym, looked over to see Erika staring back at her,  
"I've been waiting for this one a while Lydia." Lydia only managed a smirk but Erika continued, "Winner gets Percy?" Percy shot me another 'I didn't do it' look and I just focussed on the battle, Lydia looked up, grabbed a Pokéball and smiled,  
"Then he is all mine, I have a Vulpix." she smiled again, but this was wicked, "But I wanna hit you harder than that." Lydia pitched the ball across the room and a Kadabra appeared,  
_'Kadabra, it was Abra last time'  
_Erika, fearless, sent out a Victreebel, without missing a beat, Lydia studied Victreebel  
She chuckled, "Kadabra, Psy Beam." A ray beam flew from Kadabra's spoon and hit Victreebel in the middle of its bulb, Victreebel didn't even move, it just fell to the ground, neither did Erika, she fell to her knees, she returned Victreebel,  
"Tangela's Turn."  
"I'll change too." Kadabra returned to his Pokéball, "Fearow's turn."  
A large bird appeared in the middle of the room, as well as Erika's Tangela.  
"Tell you what Erika, you can have the first move."  
"Tangela, Bind." Vines from Tangela's body shot up at Fearow,  
"Agility, Fearow."  
Fearow was quick, before long it disappeared from sight,  
"Why won't you fight Lydia, scared?"  
"I don't want you to see what's coming, even after it's hit you." she pulled another wicked smile, "Keep going Fearow." No one could see this bird move, Tangela was still shooting vines in the air, nowhere near Fearow. Finally after minutes of toying with Erika, she made the call  
"Aerial Ace."  
This thing was so quick, all you saw was Tangela fall backwards, Erika was distraught,  
"two down, one to go, return Fearow." the Pokéball seemed to capture nothing, Fearow was still moving, Erika seemed to flinch when she recalled Tangela, she called her final and most powerful Pokémon, Vileplume.  
"You still have that oddish?"  
"My oldest friend in the world."  
"Well, my turn, Ivysaur, Let's go!"  
"Mega Drain, Vileplume!"  
Erika was all but defeated, but she didn't give up, Vileplume magically absorbed some energy from Ivysaur, but it hardly seemed shaken,  
"Razor Leaf, Ivysaur." leaves appeared and struck Vileplume. Each blow hit harder and harder and each Pokémon became more and more tired. Vileplume wasn't giving up.  
"Poison Powder, Vileplume." Purple spores filled the air,  
"Try to dodge them Ivysaur." Lydia commanded, Ivysaur jumped out of the way but it was too slow, some of spores managed to attach, not badly poisoned, but enough.  
"Petal Dance, Vileplume." Erika commanded, pink petals filled the the gym, seemingly sucking the power out of Ivysaur,  
"Ivysaur! We have one more chance! Double-Edge!" Ivysaur launched itself at Vileplume, dealing a full-blown super powerful tackle, Vileplume flew backwards and fainted, Lydia had destroyed Erika. A light filled the room, we couldn't figure out where it was, and then we realized the light was coming from Ivysaur, it was evolving.

The light faded, and a Venusaur stood in the middle of the gym.  
"Ivysaur! I'm so proud of you" She hugged her new pokémon, tears in her eyes, "Sorry, Venusaur." she corrected.  
"That was fantastic!" I yelled from the sideline,  
"It was a great match Lydia." Erika agreed, Percy stayed oddly quiet. Erika took a quick glance at Percy, and then back to Lydia,  
"He's all yours." She smiled, Lydia blushed and replied in kind. After convincing herself that she had finished blushing, which she hadn't yet, she turned to us,  
"So where are we staying tonight?"  
"Pokécentre sounds good." Percy finally chiming in, completely oblivious to what had been said. It was already fairly late in the day, so we headed out to the centre, when we got there, Lydia's face lit up,  
"Wow! She still works here!"  
"Who does?" Percy and I asked simultaneously  
"Isla's mother, she still works here." Lydia headed in at top speed and Percy and I quickly followed. We got there shortly after Lydia, and we saw the nurse she was talking about, the same face as the others, same hairstyle, doesn't look a day older than the rest of them.  
"Isn't she a mother of another nurse?" Percy whispered to me,  
"Yeah, I think that's her."  
"They don't age!"  
I think the nurse overheard us, because she just peeked over Lydia's shoulder to see us behind her,  
"Hello there, this must be Airen and Percy."  
Percy sighed "Actually, its Per.. Wait, did you just say my name right?"  
"He gets Peter a lot." Lydia explained, and the nurse giggled,  
"My name is Emma, Emma Joy."  
Lydia shot an 'I told you so' look back at us, and continued on with general conversation. It took three goes at reminding Lydia that we needed a place to stay before she finally asked.  
"Yes, of course we have a room, I'll show you where it is." She led us up the stairs and into a room where we quickly unpacked our things and got comfortable, before too long we were asleep.

What woke us was the lamp falling off the desk and breaking against the floor. Then we noticed the room shaking and heard the rumble radiating across the land. We got up and headed outside as fast as we could, Archie close behind, we found Nurse Emma Joy looking out toward the horizon  
"What's happened Nurse Joy?" Lydia asked,  
"The Cinnabar Island Volcano." her hand was shaking as the pointed to the column of black smoke, "It has erupted."


	12. Chapter 11

p class="MsoNormal"  
style="line-height: 150%;"All I could feel was the heat wash over me, Cinnabar Island was miles away, but you could feel the magma, you could see the light, you could taste the ash. The world seemed to silence, I couldn't manage a sound, I just stood watching the horizon with my mouth open. Percy jumped in front of me, he was yelling something but I couldn't hear him, Lydia wrapped her arms around me and led me inside, without a sound I obeyed. They sat me down inside and draped a blanket around me, we turned the television on and the sound around gradually came back to normal, every station had a news report about the incident, br / "These are scenes of the tragic accident that happened a little over an hour ago, we haven't managed to get too close, we can't tell you if there are any survivors just yet." Lydia's grip tightened around me, she knew my parents still lived there, and so did Elysia. I got up from the table and headed outside, Archie following close behind as usual. I noticed Lydia trying to follow,  
but Percy held her back with a gentle hand on her shoulder. We found a slight rise, where we could see the volcano. I dropped down onto my knees, tears flowing from my eyes, Archie perched himself with his front paws in my lap, I gave him a scratch on the head, the tears kept coming, my mind was racing, imagining face of people that I left behind on that island. Eventually Lydia and Percy found me, br /  
"Got some news Airen." Lydia came running up the hill. I brushed the tears from my eyes, scratched Archie's head and looked up, br / "They said that any survivors will be taken to Fuchsia City, but they can't get close yet, it'll be a few days yet"br /  
"So..." Percy continued, "We have Saffron City Gym first, let's get your mind off it and go battle,  
and then straight afterwards we head to Fuchsia." Percy smiled, my mind was still racing, br / em'how dare he! I just lost my family, and he wants another gym badge'  
/emI wanted to scream at him, but I knew he was right, em'a battle would help, take my mind off it, it will be a few days until any survivors will turn up' /emreluctantly I nodded. I got up and dusted myself off, we headed back to the centre and I grabbed my stuff, Lydia and Percy saw me, and agreed, they walked to the room and got everything together as well, br / "Thank you Nurse Joy, we will let you know what happens." Lydia smiled,br / "Good luck guys,  
especially you Airen, I hope all is well." We left in silence, the only noise was the slight rumble from Cinnabar Island, heading back to the east, toward Saffron. When we finally got there, the buildings were huge, we could barely see the sky, the one we couldn't help but notice was Silph Co. A huge company building, in the heart of the town, heading past that, we found the gym up in the North East corner. Percy elected to go first, I wasn't even concentrating on my team, I wasn't even sure I had the right team to take on a Psychic gym. Lydia and I sat around in silence, though she kept looking at me, maybe trying to figure out what was going on in my head, but before too long Percy emerged, he was quiet and seemed a little shaken, gym badge in hand, I was happy for him, but I couldn't manage a smile, Lydia got up and went next, br / "That was a tough one, probably the hardest so far." Percy managed, his eyes were wide open, not even a hint of a smile on his face, trying to change the subject, "Got your team together?" I nodded, I hadn't said anything since the night before, but I hadn't got my team together, I was totally unprepared, I was just going to see how I go, wasn't the greatest plan, but it's all I got right now. Lydia came out holding her badge with a straight face, I swear I could see a tear running down her cheek, but she quickly wiped it awaybr / "You're turn, Airen." she said encouragingly,  
managing a smile, I walked inside the gym and it was an incredible place, pillars around the field, but they weren't attached to the ground or roof, they were suspended there, some sort of pink energy was keeping them in place, a woman stood at the other end, she wore white jeans with a pink tank top, her dark black hair almost covered her face, except her eyes, her eyes were glowing pink, but they were cold, near heartless. br / em'So,  
this is Airen, the last of the Oak trio.' /emmy eyes widened, "How did you do that, you are talking in my head." she cracked a smile, like this was a prank she played on people, br / "Hello Airen, I'm Sabrina." she smiled, not a warm one, a menacing smile, "I heard about your home town, tell me, do you miss your parents?"br / "What kind of question is that?! Of course I do!"br / She smiled again, "Really? Cause it didn't take you long to forget them, when you left home, you only thought of Elysia." I was getting really angry, Sabrina however smiled more, "It doesn't matter, there is a new trio out now, did you know? I hope they are better, this trio isn't what it was cracked up to be." br /  
"Okay, enough! Let's do this." I threw a Pokéball and Wartortle appeared, Sabrina didn't move, in fact,  
the ball itself did, and a Kadabra appeared, br / "Wartortle, Aqua Tail." Wartortle moved in close a with a swing of its tail, slammed into the side of Kadabra, who barely winced, br / "Disable, Kadabra." a pinkish hue surrounded Kadabra and then Wartortle, "Now Wartortle won't be able to use that move."br / em'Damn it, that was his strongest move.' /em"Okay Wartortle, Water Pulse!" a shot of water appeared, in a perfect circle, hitting Kadabra, seemingly confusing it, making it near useless, br / "Kadabra, recover."  
the hue returned and Kadabra appeared perfectly fine, br /  
em'oh you've got to be kidding.'  
/emI studied Kadabra for a second, it hadn't moved from that spot, at all, hadn't needed to, "Wartortle, Bite!"  
Wartortle charged in, jaws wide open and latched onto Kadabra's neck, Kadabra winced and / "Psybeam." a rainbow beam appeared from Kadabra's spoon, direct hit on Wartortle, it flew back to my feet, and didn't move, I returned Wartortle, br / em'well that didn't work.' /emI reached for another Pokéball and threw it, Pidgeot appeared, its loud cry echoed in the room, br / "Wing Attack." Pidgeot flew in and hit Kadabra head on, it must've been tired from Wartortle because that's all it took to take out Kadabra. Another ball floated out and this time a Mr. Mime appeared, br / "Wing attack again." Pidgeot lined up Mr. Mime and attacked, br / "Double slap." Sabrina called, and Mr. Mime readied itself, Pidgeot flew in and with perfect timing and precision, Mr. Mime slapped Pidgeot that took it off course and into the wall. I took a second to process that last counter move,br /  
"Its fast, but you are faster, Quick Attack, Pidgeot!" It lined up Mr. Mime again and flew in and hit Mr. Mime, it was quick but not sturdy, Mr. Mime fainted, and a Venomoth appeared next, br / em'A bug type, against Pidgeot, this will be no problem.' /emspoke too soon, before I was able to choose a move, a ray of rainbow light hit Pidgeot square in the chest and it fell out of the sky, moving quickly I returned it before it hit the ground. br / "You didn't command anything, why did it attack?!"br /  
"You didn't hear me command Venomoth, I can command Pokémon with my Psychic abilities."br / em'Excellent, now anything can happen at any time.'  
/emI gritted my teeth, "Okay, Golbat it's your turn."  
Golbat appeared, flapping its wings unbelievably fast. "Arcobatics."  
Golbat moved with incredible speed and hit Venomoth. Sabrina smiled again, br / "Psybeam."br /  
em'oh not good.' /ema beam of light hit Golbat and in an instant it fainted, br /  
"That was my fault, Golbat, forgive me."br / "Yes it was your fault." Sabrina agreed, It was Archie's turn, He was all I had left, br / "Flamethrower."  
Direct hit, Venomoth was gone in no time, but I knew the worst was about to happen, Alakazam appeared in the field, it didn't take long before Alakazam attacked, sending a Psybeam toward Archie, much more powerful than the others, though Archie held on, br /  
"Flame burst." it hit Alakazam, but it didn't seem to do much, Alakazam retaliated and that's all it took, Archie lay motionless on the ground, I had lost this gym battle, br / "Sabrina approached me, you fought well." She held out her hand and I gratefully shook it,br / "I'll be coming back you know."br / "I'll be waiting."  
she smiled, this time with actual warmth. I exited and it only took one look from Percy and Lydia to realise I had lost, br /  
Lydia smiled gently "Come on, let's find the Pokécentre."/p 


	13. Chapter 12

Thankfully Pokécentre's are quick, but the news program wasn't, it kept displaying pictures of the disaster, an ad about Pokébikes, _'bikes that fit in your pocket.' _and another about Oak's latest trio, who he apparently sends on their way when the current trio receives their fourth badge. The ad replayed who they were but I got distracted by Archie jumping on my lap, all rested after his treatment, scratching and cuddling him, by the time I looked up, the news had restarted. Percy and Lydia came from the other end of the centre. Percy back into his usual outfit, and Lydia seemingly uncomfortable, she couldn't stand still.  
"You okay Lydia?"  
"Yeah, no problem." she managed a smile, and I thought I saw a hint of one on Percy, but I decided I best not ask,  
"Shall we head back to Celadon, and down route seventeen?"  
"Yeah, it's the quickest way." Percy replied, and with that we grabbed our gear and headed back to Celadon. I wasn't feeling the greatest, I had let down my Pokémon and lost a gym battle, my home had been destroyed, but on top of all that, it was what Sabrina had said to me rather than the battle,  
_'Really? Cause it didn't take you long to forget them, when you left home, you only thought of Elysia.' _Her voice kept playing in my mind, like she was still telling me or forcing me to hear it over and over. I tried to force it out of my mind, I never realised how quick walking goes when your mind is somewhere else. We finally got to route seventeen when we saw a sign _'Bike Path, No pedestrians, Bikes allowed.' _and beside it, a very cleverly placed ad _'Pokébikes available at the Celadon Department Store, _P_9, 999.99' _we studied the signs silently, until we concentrated on the price,  
"HOW MUCH!" we all screamed.  
"We don't have that kind of money" Percy jumped in,  
"No, but I can get it, quickly." Lydia studied our reactions, "Seriously, meet me by the department store."  
"Lydia, what are you doing?" but she seemingly didn't hear me, she was already gone. Percy and I shared a look of utter confusion before we decided that we had better head to the department store, the silence didn't last long however, Percy deciding to speak up.  
"So, what happened back there, at Saffron?"  
I sighed, "I don't know, I didn't have a plan, which was bad enough, and then..."  
"She spoke in your mind?"  
"Yeah! I guess she did that to you as well then."  
"Yeah, she is a Psychic master, she will get in your mind."  
"Well, nothing personal mate, but I'm gonna keep what she said to myself."  
"No problem, I wasn't gonna tell you either." He laughed and shared a smile, we changed topic and talked for what seems like hours, and before too long, Lydia came back, holding a wad of cash  
"P30, 000. Plus some on the side." She smiled.  
"Lydia, holy mew, what, how did you get that."  
"Doesn't matter, what matters is that I get away from here quickly, I don't wanna get hooked again." She looked toward a building, but it may have been just into space,  
"Okay, let's get these bikes." We headed inside and handed over the money, before too long we were back at the entrance to the bike path, unpacking the bikes, it was just a small cylinder with a button on it.  
"Place it on the ground and push the button." Lydia read aloud. I placed it in a grove between bricks and pushed the button. Both ends of the pole grew, unfolding and clicking, handle bars unfolding from itself and clicking into place, pedals and gears appeared, the wheels growing and expanding, the spokes appeared in a clockwise motion, one appeared and then the next and so on, until they were all present, then the tires inflated themselves, the button stayed centrally on the bike frame down tube, allowing you to collapse it at any time, just not by accident, I reached forward, and suddenly a bell appeared out of seemingly nowhere, I laughed in shock and despite our astonishment, a bike stood in front of us. Lydia and Percy erected theirs and the sight of a bike growing, from a pipe not more than ten centimetres long, never gets old. We jumped on our impossible bikes and headed down the bike path, wind in our hair and barely anyone here because it was newly opened. For a little, life was beautiful, friends with me, riding down an empty, yet magnificent bridge, with bikes that was only a pipe about five minutes ago, that was until I saw that the column of black smoke, that still hadn't dissipated from the horizon, we were coming closer, and the volcano was still going. We got to Fuchsia City, a city with obvious history, the buildings seemed new, but they appeared to be built with a rustic sense, like the updated the buildings but wanted to keep the old feeling.  
"Okay, did you wanna hit the gym?" Percy smiled,  
"Maybe, not right away, I need a plan." I smiled back and they all agreed, "Besides I want to head over to the rescue area, to see if they found anyone yet."  
"Sounds like a plan." Lydia chimed in, we walked over toward the Pokécentre and toward the beach, there were reporters and emergency people everywhere, but no one being treated, I approached one and asked about any possible survivors,  
"Not yet kid, and there isn't to be any travel over there yet, we are still making sure the volcano is safe enough to fly near, we don't want to raise the tally."  
"But that's my home."  
"Yeah, you and ten reporters so far."  
"But it is!"  
"Look kid, we can't go near yet, I am following orders." I sighed but I understood, we headed back toward the city, and decided a night off is what we needed, tomorrow, we will hit the gym, so we headed into the Pokécentre, hired a room and settled down for the night. Sleep was avoiding me, my mind kept replaying what Sabrina had said, I couldn't get rid of it, and so I decided on devising my plan.  
_'Poison types, I have no real advantage. I guess I will go for strength and speed. I don't wanna get my Pokémon poisoned.' _Finally I had fallen asleep.

My dreams weren't helping with my mood of late, I replayed my Saffron Gym loss, the horizon turning black with ash, and the picture of Elysia fresh in my mind, suddenly, I was awake. My eyes flashed open and I sat upright, sweat pouring down my back, it was only sunrise, I got up and sat at the table, I looked over my Pokémon and studied them, and before too long, I had my team ready. Percy and Lydia woke up, not long after that, so we gathered our things and headed out, the Fuchsia City Gym first. We headed to the gym, I let Percy and Lydia go first, I wanted to do this right. Percy emerged with yet another badge pinned to the inside of his suit jacket. After some time Lydia came back with another badge pinned to her bag strap. Then it was my turn, I entered the gym with confidence, however I was slightly taken aback to the surroundings, it seemed like an old training dojo, and more or less, normal. A man stood at the end of the room, he wore black robes with grey and purple lining, with a red cape that came to his knees lay still from the lack of wind.  
"Greetings, Airen Redwood, I am Koga, The Poison Pokémon Master."  
"Did you give yourself that name?"  
"You are foolish boy, to come here and challenge me."  
"Come on then, let's go."  
"Very well, I shall show you true terror as a ninja master! You shall feel the despair of poison and sleep techniques!" Koga threw a Pokéball and a Koffing appeared in a cloud of smoke,  
"Alright, let's go Eevee!" Eevee appeared before Koffing, raring to go.  
"Koffing, smokescreen."  
"Quick Attack." and with a line of light, Eevee hit Koffing before it could even make an attack, Koffing bounced back, literally, and smoke spewed from its body,  
"Eevee, stay low!" the smoke seemed to cover every part of the building except about half a metre from the bottom, "Eevee, keep an eye out."  
Koga laughed, "Tackle." Koffing struck Eevee, who flew through the smoke and landed at my feet,  
"Can you fight Eevee!" It winced slightly but got up quickly, "Wait until the smoke clears, Eevee, then tackle it." The smoke took a while to clear, then again, that'd be the point of it, but as soon as you could see the outline of Koffing, Eevee leapt into action and tackled it. This time Koffing didn't bounce back, only rolled onto the side. Koga retrieved Koffing and sent out another, Muk, a blob of toxic waste.  
"Eevee, come back, you had a great fight." I retrieved Eevee and sent Archie out. It was his turn.  
"Muk, Poison Gas!" Muk sent out gas that was quickly filling the room,  
"Archie, Flamethrower!" Wrong move, Archie's flame engulfed that gas quickly, BOOM! An explosion shook the building and sent us all flying backward,  
"Archie!" I heard a familiar, yet weak, bark. When the smoke cleared Muk was a puddle and Archie lay near the wall, attempting to get up,  
"That's enough, buddy." I picked him up and placed him by my side, off the field, Koga retrieved Muk as well, and replaced it with a Weezing,  
"Wartortle's turn." I threw the ball and Wartortle appeared, "Aqua Tail!" Wartortle rushed Weezing and hit it with his tail at full force, Weezing was still shaking it off before Wartortle rushed in with a Water Pulse, a perfect circle of water hit Weezing at full force. Weezing got back up and moved to the centre of the field, shaking and swaying, then Weezing started to radiate light, it was getting brighter and brighter,  
"Weezing, No!"  
"What is it?!  
"It's confused, it's using self destruct, get down!" The explosion covered the field and the light lasted a long time, maybe a little longer than expected. When it all cleared, Weezing lay motionless on the ground, and a large, imposing Blastoise stood at the other end,  
"Blastoise, that was amazing!" I hugged Blastoise and Koga approached me,  
"You have proven your worth, here is the soul badge."  
"Thank you." I recalled Blastoise and headed outside, Archie was feeling much better so I let him walk with me as well. We headed outside to meet up with Percy and Lydia,  
"Got it."  
"Yea, sounded exciting, could hear a few explosions out here."  
I laughed, "Yeah, it was like that, so what do we do now?"  
"I guess just hanging out until we can go to Cinnabar Island." Lydia smiled, but something else caught my eye, a girl talking to the emergency guy from yesterday, I approached to try to hear what they were saying,  
"No, I can't let you go over there"  
"But, that's where I live"  
"Yeah, you and ten other reporters"  
"But..."  
"I'll tell you what I told the other kid yesterday, we can't get close, not yet, I'm just following orders, we will let you know." She made a very audible and clearly annoyed sigh and turned to walk away, her short brown hair swayed and turned with her, her light blue eyes fixated on me,  
"Airen?!"  
I smiled, "Elysia"


End file.
